Background
He grew up in Austria and Czechoslovakia, arriving in the United Kingdom in 1939 on one of the kindertransport missions.
- Photos
- Works
- Photos
- Works
Benjamin Abeles
Edit ProfileEducation
He completed his education after the war in Czechoslovakia and Israel (from 1949), obtaining a doctorate in physics.
Career
He then lived and worked as a research physicist in the United States of America, retiring in 1995. His honours include the 1979 Stuart Ballantine Medal and his induction into the New Jersey Inventors Hall of Fame (1991). Born in Vienna in 1925, Abeles lived in Czechoslovakia from 1934.
In July 1939, aged 14, he was one of hundreds of Jewish children brought from Prague to London through the efforts of British humanitarian Nicholas Winton, an example of the various kindertransport missions that saved many such children from the impending dangers of World World War II and the Holocaust.
Aged 15 he worked as a waiter and took correspondence courses in English, mathematics, physics and chemistry. At the age of 18, Abeles served as a mechanic in the war as part of Number.
311 Squadron Royal Air Force. After the war he returned to Czechoslovakia and studied at Charles University in Prague and Czechoslovakian Technical University in Prague, before moving to Israel in 1949 to study for his doctorate in Jerusalem. His thesis, published in 1955, was titled "The Galvanomagnetic Effects in Bismuth and Bi-Sn Alloys".
Following the award of his Doctor of Philosophy, Abeles worked in Israel on germanium electronics before moving to the United States of America to carry out research in Princeton for the Radio Corporation of America.
During his career, Abeles worked at both the David Sarnoff Research Center and at Exxon Research and Engineering in Annandale, New Jersey. He lived with his family in Princeton and commuted to the Exxon research centre. Working with George Doctorate. Cody in the 1960s, Abeles developed germanium-silicon alloys that were used in the development of the radioisotope thermoelectric generators used to power spacecraft and probes engaged in long voyages of space exploration.
Abeles also worked as a professor at the University of Texas.
Abeles"s 65th birthday in 1990 was marked by a symposium in his honour: "Physical Phenomena in Granular Materials". Abeles retired in 1995.
His interests include a range of courses enrolled on as part of the University of the Third Age.
